gravelinmygears 

I’ve heard that Superbe pro is amazing. As I gather parts, what era or bikes would you say it’s appropriate for?

smontanaro 

I think it's appropriate for everything. I've not used the later (more moderne Pro) stuff, but I had Superbe on an early 80s Trek 760 for 20-odd years and have it on my Griffon today. It works and looks great, IMO.

steelbikeguy

as far as the era, this was an ad from 1978...



It was top of the line gear, so should go on an equally great bike.

I still have a Superbe front derailleur on a bike that I installed 30 years and 60,000 miles ago. Still doing fine!

Steve in Peoria
(and the Superbe pedals with the cartridge bearings are just incredible!)

79pmooney

Super Bee! I worked in a Fuji shop 1977. The Fuji Pro was the first or one of the first bikes with Superbe a year before it was available as parts. Gorgeous stuff. Function was not radically better than Cyclone and the top of the line Grand Compe brakes, etc. but the quality and beauty! We drooled. ("Super Bee" was shop slang.)

johnnyace 

My 1983 Trek 760 was my "gateway drug" to Suntour Superbe, and Suntour generally speaking. Cyclone is great stuff, too. In my opinion, it is some of the best cycling componentry ever made. My dream is to some day have a custom all-road bike built for myself (lugged steel, of course), and have it fitted with a complete NOS Suntour Superbe gruppo. I wish they had made a Superbe center-pull brake!

Then again, the new SunXCD stuff is really nice, too, even if the RD is made by Microshift.

Roger M

I'm all for Superbe, but I am guessing the OP is speaking of the later(and possibly indexed) Superbe Pro.

I would put Superbe Pro on most any high end 80s production or custom frame that's not Italian.

my no Pro gear...

thook

suntour often paired well with dia compe on group matching. DC gran compe 450's are what could be considered superbe level finish and function

RiddleOfSteel

I loved the Accushift Plus era of Superbe Pro when I had it. Gorgeous shift levers, beautiful groupset. It's as expensive as all get out now, even more eye-bleeding than it was last year, making most generations of Dura-Ace blush. Prices are stratospheric! IMO it's more beautiful than 7400 Dura-Ace, but that's no knock on 7400. As I am a big fan of indexing, the Superbe Pro of the Accushift Plus era is my favorite. I've had friction era (1st/2nd gen) and that worked well and was lovely to behold. You're basically not going to go wrong with any generation so long as you find it in good working condition. Anything abused will perform in a subpar manner, no matter how wonderful they were to start off with.

Andy_K 

There were several generations of Superbe stuff. If you care about period correctness, you need to figure out which generation you have/want. In my opinion, the mid 80's stuff was the best looking. The late 80's/early 90's stuff is starting to have the rounded appearance of 2000's Shimano components.

Here's my 1985 Performance Superbe with a lot of SunTour Superbe stuff (purists may not want to look to closely).

johnnyace 

Yes, absolutely! Thanks for the reminder, I have thought of those 450s. The DC Gran Compe stuff is great. I've been looking for a NOS pair of Dia-Compe GC 162 brakes levers for a couple of years now... unobtainium.

Doug Fattic 

I put Superbe Pro parts on the custom bicycle I made for myself in the late 80's because it was in my opinion the most beautiful group. The brakes with the blind spring were particularly nice looking. One caution is that to get the best indexed shifting performance, I needed to use their freewheel and chain. The smallest cogs had a different width between cogs then when you got to the bigger cogs. The Shimano freewheel cogs were evenly spaced. Their Suntour chain made shifting better too and I believe the bottom of the plates were a different shape than the top. I had to make sure to put it on the right way. My memory from 30 years ago isn't perfect so I might need to be corrected. I sort of remember other chains would work, just not as well.

JohnDThompson 

"Superbe" components came out in the late 70s. "Superbe Pro" components are different and came out in the early 80s, and remained on the market through the late 80s.

3alarmer 

...this. Here it is on a Japanese made Bianchi Pro from the 80's. Earlier than that in the 70's was Cyclone for the most part, in Suntour's top level.
I wouldn't be all that worried about matching up stuff like brakes, cranks, etc. I don't think all that many people did back then. Personally, I was into function over gruppo.


'85 Bianchi Professional

3alarmer 

It was often paired with Sugino branded cranks and the deluxe finish NGC brakes

Superbe on a Schwinn Peloton

masi61

+1 on all these remarks. Winner or Winner Pro “4-prong” freewheels have the asymmetric spacing that indexes correctly with Suntour Accushift shift levers. The 6/7 speed Superbe Pro levers were a bit easier for me to find a few years ago. The Superbe Pro 7/8 speed levers are even more highly sought after, it appears. These Accushift shift levers have really flowing, functional lines - lovely. NOS SuntTour Superbe Pro stuff is indeed snatched up faster now and good deals are random and rare. Occasionally you will see a bidding war for some Superbe Pro parts where just two or 3 bidders want some part really, really badly.

Last week I watched where 7 speed era Deore XT and Shimano XTR new old stock components were selling for very high dollars! An XTR quick release seatpost bolt sold for over $500, amazing!

I bought some NOS Superbe Pro 172.5 crankarms from a seller in Japan earlier this year for what is now a decent price. About 7 or 8 years ago I failed to bid on an NOS Superbe Pro 172.5 crankset complete with the correct 39/53 chainrings that the opening bid was just $99. The auction ended with no bidders. In today’s market that complete NOS crankset if you could find it would go for a lot, lot more than $99. BTW: one of the things that I love about these Superbe Pro crankarms is the level of detailing of the spider. The back of the spider is polished and faceted to the same level of perfection as the outside face. You rarely come across square taper cranks that are jewelry like that.

Since Superbe Pro parts are so easily searched for on eBay makes them get cleaned out easily, & therefore scarce. But sometimes, if you are patient, maybe you can buy one of a pair of some parts you are interested in.

If anyone has in their possession a 1st generation Superbe front hub with correct QR skewer in a 24 or 28 hole drilling pattern - private message me please.

RiddleOfSteel

1988 Davidson Signature with nearly the whole set!

jdawginsc 

Might get some disagreement here, but the GC 450 centerpulls were one of the most elegant pieces of hardware ever made. Perfect lines, artistically...I always wanted some. Off to Ebay...

rando_couche

IIRC, there was a major Dutch or Belgian pro team (Buckler maybe?) that rode Colnagos with Superbe or Superbe Pro, so a late '70's - early 80's Colnago would be appropriate.

rando_couche

Correction: Buckler was in the early 90's, on Superbe Pro-equipped Colnagos.

tendency

I like the later Superbe Pro brakes/derailleurs. Personally would avoid the headset. Hubs are great. Biggest issue I have with the Suntour gear are the clusters - they're bricks and don't shift nearly as well as the Shimano Hyperglide gear. But whatcha gonna do?

thook

That's super sharp!! However, if I may make one suggestion??

Change nothing!!! hahaha

thook

I totally agree with that sentiment! I just wish i could afford them...lol

smontanaro 

Are they basically the same as the Specialized sealed bearing hubs, just with different understated graphics?

tendency

I'm not familiar with the Specialized hubs - those are not full cartridge bearing hubs though, correct? Aren't they basically a bearing race with a seal outside it?

In either case, the Suntour Superbe Pro and Sprint later model hubs I'm familiar with have cartridge bearing enclosures and not seals.

jdawginsc 

I went off to ebay...spent 7 milliseconds on there, and got right back off...I am not sure Jeff Bezos could afford them...